Tollway To Install Speed Readers On I-pass Only, Express Lanes

July 23, 1999|By Rogers Worthington, Tribune Staff Writer.

When state tollway officials increased the maximum speed for the I-PASS Only toll plaza lanes last month to 30 m.p.h. from 15 m.p.h., they did so with a stern warning that the speed limit would be enforced.

But to an I-PASS speeder, the threat was pretty much an idle one, unless a state trooper was nearby to observe the violation. Although there are sophisticated video cameras at I-PASS plazas to capture images of toll scofflaws, they're no menace to speeders because they don't gauge a vehicle's velocity.

On Thursday, the Operations Committee of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority approved a $120,000 purchase of "speed-detection modules" for the 274-mile tollway system.

"When you go through an I-PASS Only or Express lane, (a module) will detect your speed," said Donald O'Toole, tollway authority spokesman. He said a readout on the machines will inform a motorist that " `You are going 40 m.p.h., or, `You're going too fast.' "

Anyone with the I-PASS electronic toll-paying device can drive through a toll plaza without stopping. The toll is electronically deducted from the motorist's prepaid account.

But some daredevil passholders, officials say, whizz through toll plazas at high speed with only inches to spare from the concrete barriers and plaza structure on either side.

The detectors to be purchased consist of steel loops with electronic circuitry that, when buried in the pavement, can determine a vehicle's speed by how fast a wheel passes across.

The devices will be installed in I-PASS Only and I-PASS Express lanes, but tollway officials are more concerned about speeding in the former--converted toll plaza lanes from which the gates have been removed.

I-PASS Express lanes are wider and have quarter-mile concrete dividers on either side to separate them from other toll plaza lanes.

Speeders who are detected several times will receive a letter warning them that, if they are clocked on two more occasions, their I-PASS subscription will be terminated, O'Toole said.

"We're not interested in yanking the licenses of speeders," O'Toole said. "But we do insist they observe the speed limit."